Pop it Ups Karen Burniston Designer Challenge – Characters in Costume

October 14, 2015

Hi, it’s Karen Burniston with the October Pop it Ups Designer Challenge. Each month I challenge my Designer Challenge team to use Pop it Ups dies for a specific theme. This month the theme is Characters in Costume and the goal is to transform the Characters in some way – perhaps it’s by dressing them in a costume, or perhaps it’s a complete repurposing of the die cut shapes. I think you’ll agree that the team was very creative this month and have provided 20 inspirational ideas.

For my card and video I decided on a Christmas theme and thought William the Goat would make an excellent elf. I used the Ring Accordion and a technique for adding the expanding trees from the Christmas Trees Pop Stand die into the pages.

Here is the video tutorial for this project.

When the Ring Accordion is folded up it becomes a circle with a diameter just under 5″, which means it fits nicely in an A7 (5×7) envelope for mailing.

Any of the Characters can be “elfified” by using the same techniques as shown in the video with William. The Agatha Flourish provides excellent elf shoes. I also added a scrap of leftover glitter line to William’s hat.

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own Expanding Trees Ring Accordion with William the Elf.

Let’s see what the Designer Challenge Team came up with for this month’s Characters in Costume challenge.

Kelly Booth made a Tent Card from the Oval Accordion, following the great instructions by Frances Byrne, and decorating with the Oval Dots Frame Edges. She added the Outdoor Edges grass and the All Seasons Tree and then transformed Poppy the Owl into a ghost. What a cute Owl-o-ween card!

Frances Byrne created a whole new Character by combining pieces from Chilly the Penguin and Rocky the Crab. Meet her cute jellyfish on this fabulous Rectangle Pull Card.

Summer Hills-Painter transformed Honey the Bear into Santa for this sweet Ring Accordion. I love her color scheme of blues and whites and then the pop of Ho Ho Ho Honey! She used the Props 5 set for the Santa parts.

Raquel Mason made a clever transformation by adding a label from the Lucy Label set to create turkey feathers. Dutch the Fox becomes Dutch the Turkey! She used Poppy the Owl’s foot for a waddle.

Donna Wright made this fun frosty Adirondack Chair card with Chilly the Penguin transformed into a snowman. Then she went to work using a lot of the decorator pieces from Pop it Ups sets to create her scene. This is a lovely feature of Pop it Ups dies – that the decorator pieces are included, and very interchangeable.

Fran Sabad used the new Gift Card Accordion and companion Flourish Gift Frame for a fun 3-page accordion featuring Poppy the Owl as a graduate. She chose colors from their local high school and says her next job is finding a gift card to match the color scheme! (The gift card will slide easily into the slots on her center page).

Sandy Diller made this fabulous Etch A Sketch tent card and filled it with Cocoa, William and Chilly dressed like famous toys. She shows photos of each costume and how she made them with Props and decorator dies, so definitely click her name to go check it out.

Caz Counsell made this fun Superbunny card using Lucky the Rabbit and the Gift Card Accordion. She used it for a card/gift for her son’s friend and I’m sure it was a hit!

Frances Byrne made a second card for the challenge featuring Poppy the Owl wearing a pumpkin costume. She used the Tags Pivot Card and the grass from the Outdoor Edges turned sideways as borders. (Brilliant!)

Karen Aicken transformed Hoppy the Frog into a vampire for this fun Halloween Gift Card Accordion. I love the orange flies and how she colored everything with Pan Pastels.

Caz Counsell was inspired by one of her favorite rubber stamps to convert Whiskers the Cat into a flying bumblebee. She used the wings and antennae from the Butterfly Pivot Card and drew on the jumper with colored pens. She also used the Rectangle Pull Card very cleverly for a shaped top-fold card.

Shelly Hickox was very transformative with Whiskers the Cat – converting her into a witch doll perfect for Halloween decor. Shelly got clever with Props 2 and a decorative oval die to make the hat.

Sandy Diller was inspired by a friend to create Javelinas from Virgil the Pig. I just love the southwestern scene she created with the Western and Outdoor Edges, plus the branches of the All Seasons Tree. She also used the new Cocoa Western clear stamps.

Kelly Booth made this adorable tent card featuring Poppy the Owl all dressed for a luau. She used the Beach Edges to set the scene and framed the card with the new Flourish Gift Frame.

Karen Aicken made three cards for this month’s challenge including this fabulous Lucy Label pop-up card featuring Dutch the Fox as a chef. I love how she created the chef’s hat using the pail and cloud die. So clever!

Fran Sabad made a whole Halloween hay ride with four fun costumed Characters. She used the Lots of Pops die to animate her cart, and various Props dies to costume the Characters. Amazing!

Helen Cryer cracked me up with this fun Wonder Chick card. She dressed Cheepers the Chicken as the famous superhero, using clever touches like glitter dot earrings and cloud hair. Then she animated her wonder chick on the Lorna Label. Love it!

Raquel Mason made this adorable pop-up sleigh card featuring Jolly the Mouse dressed as Santa. She used the Merry & Bright Clear Stamps for the “Santa Says Shop!” greeting and I love those red pearls in the centers of the snowflakes.

Summer Hills-Painter felt Lucky in love and made this adorable Lucky the Rabbit turned Cupid card. She used the Spiral Circle Pull Card with the spiral cut from clear to animate all the little arrows (from the Rectangle Pull Card). I’d say this is a bullseye!

Kelly Booth had fun dressing Cheepers the Chicken as a cowgirl. She used the new Props 6 and put Cheepers on an action wobbler so she jiggles and dances when the card is open. The Lorna Label provides the pop-up structure.

And finally, something really important;

Karen Aicken found great meaning and purpose with this month’s challenge as a chance to transform Cocoa the Horse into a Purple Zebra, the symbol for Pulmonary Hypertension. Her granddaughter, Olivia, is living with advanced Pulmonary Hypertension and Karen explains a lot about the condition, the warning signs, and links to PH associations in four different countries. If you click to Karen’s post you’ll have the opportunity to win the four dies she used on this special card for Olivia. Elizabeth Craft Designs is providing the prize to raise more awareness of Pulmonary Hypertension.

There are seventeen Character dies and the team managed to use thirteen in their creations this month. That’s a lot of Character Costume inspiration! Ready to give some of these transformations a try? For THIS WEEK ONLY Elizabeth Craft Designs has discounted all Character and Props dies. Shop the sale here: October 12-16, 2015 Characters & Props Sale

Join me and the team next month on November 18, 2015 for the next Pop it Ups Karen Burniston Designer Challenge. Next month the team is going to be inspired by any of my Pop it Ups technique videos to make new creations based on the videos. It should be a fun challenge with the added bonus of video instructions already available for the techniques.

Happy Crafting!

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Karen Burniston is a paper crafter specializing in pop-ups and interactive techniques. She designs the Pop it Ups dies for Elizabeth Craft Designs. Find links to Karen around the web by visiting her blog: karenburniston.com

I love love love all your dies but the Character dies are my all time most loved I just sit and make them by the 1/2 dozen so I have them ready for any project. It is amazing that you have made them so they can be more than what they appear to be. I do not feel like I have spent too much money when I can use the same die for so many different projects. Thank you for your skills.

Oh my gosh!!! The designers have certainly brought these cute and cuddly CHARACTERS to life! On Donnas card I had to actually reach out to see if I could feel the texture on the branch!! Yes, silly but I did!! All of these characters are welcome to come visit me anytime!

The theme “characters in costumes” made me laugh…some of them are mad! My favourites…William the Elf, the Witch Doll and Wonder Chick. Where do you get these ideas from?
It will be difficult to choose a character die when I win!!!

These are all so amazing! Such cute ideas, and thanks so much for taking the time to do a video for the accordion die set. If I bought this and tried to do it without a video, I would have been so lost.. haha It’s really quite simple once seeing it in action. ♥

I’ve taken your classes at events, and ordered your page patterns (you turned HOME into a barn for me, remember? )so now I’m addicted to these characters. ADORABLE. I need them all! For the barn, of course!

Karen, you are one fantastic CHARACTER! I knew you’d released a lot of character dies because my budget has not been able to keep up, but I had no idea that there were now seventeen of them! Oh my! The clever design team made it impossible to choose a favorite and there are so many good ideas in this month’s newsletter. Thanks for all the inspiration that each and every one of you spark, especially you, Karen.

Karen, I had met you at the Stampin’ Up convention a couple years back and was sooooo disappointed when they stopped carrying your beautiful pop ups. Your beautiful work and inspiring creations are so great. I love the ones I have and am so glad to see this one here today. You must put some of your own character into these creations because these new characters speak to my heart. I love them. I would love to win just like all the others who leave a comment. Thank you for this chance to own another great pop up.